And now for the seven-year-old point of view

While reading my Bloglines today, I came across this post at Mike Sterling's Progressive Ruin, in which is told a sad tale: a little girl, in a comic shop with her comic-loving family, wants a copy of Krypto, and the family tries to persuade her to choose something "better." I posted a response there, but it got me thinking so I'm posting here as well.

So today I'm talking about my seven-year-old's taste in comics. (See the last post for some discussion of the twelve-year-old's preferences.) As it happens, I probably bought her that very same copy of Krypto at the newsstand (no local comic shop here) not long ago. She wasn't with me, but it seemed like something she might like, and she said it was okay so I suppose she did.

Now, she'll read the books we have around the house. She doesn't have quite the same "comic clearance" as her sister, but she does get to read quite a bit of the monthly comic box. (The comic box contains her own comics as well--her perennial favorite Scooby-Doo, and Marvel Adventures Avengers.) She likes her sister's New X-Men when her sister is willing to hand it over. She likes the Avengers titles. She'll pick up Captain America if it's there. She seems to enjoy a variety of titles.

But when she is picking out a book, what she wants is Scooby. Or something from the Marvel Adventures line. Or Teen Titans Go or Justice League Unlimited. She goes directly for the kid-oriented titles if they're there. She, not her twelve-year-old sister, is the audience for these books.

(She also wishes there were comics of cats. Does anyone know of any?)

So I find it hard to understand why a family would try to talk a kid out of choosing a kid-oriented comic. (If she was asking for something in the mature line, such as Alias--a title that is not on my kids' allowed-to-read list--that I could understand.) That's like being annoyed that your kid wants to read Mr. Popper's Penguins and pushing War and Peace instead. Eventually they'll move to other books. It'll happen with time and age. Up until a year or two ago, the now-twelve-year-old was reading Teen Titans Go. Now she reads the regular Titans book.

Get them what they like. Geez.